Many Aussies see Bali as their second home. Why? Because it’s relatively close, easy, and affordable, compared to Australia’s major cities.

The climate is straight-out wonderful, the atmosphere is relaxing, the food is top-notch, the culture is mesmerising, and we haven’t even talked about the lush rice terraces and picturesque beaches.

To enter the beautiful tropical escape, Australians must prepare some entry requirements, one of which is a visa. Now, there are a lot of types of Bali visas for Australians, and we will guide you through them one by one.

What is required to get a Bali visa for Australians?

Regardless of your age, a visa is required to enter Bali. To create a visa, the basic requirements you need to prepare are:

• A legal passport, valid for at least 6 months;
• A return ticket back to Australia or an onward ticket to another country.

If those two documents are sorted, next is to plan your travel carefully. There are two things you want to determine before you travel to Bali. First is the duration of your stay and second is the purpose of your stay.

If you’re planning to stay in Bali for tourism purposes, we recommend Visa on Arrival and Single Entry Tourist Visa as your go-to visa to enter Bali. But, if you’re doing some business activities or even working legally under an Indonesian company, you might want to try a Single Entry Business Visa or Working KITAS as your choice of visa.

Visa On Arrival

Visa On Arrival or VoA is the most popular visa to get when it comes to short-term vacations. It offers an initial stay duration of 30 days and can be extended once for another 30 days, giving the holder 60 full days of stay permit.

It’s a hassle-free solution that requires a relatively minimal amount of paperwork and can be easily obtained upon arrival at the airport. All you have to do is present a valid passport with at least six months of validity, a return ticket, and pay a fee of Rp.500.000 or USD 35.

You can also obtain a Visa On Arrival online to avoid queueing at the airport and the application is more or less the same. First, visit The Official e-Visa Website for Indonesia and apply. Then, you pay the fee and a link to your visa will be sent to your email once your application is approved.

As for the visa extension, you can either do it online or offline depending on your preferences. Doing it offline will involve three visits to the immigration office, and you can request an extension of up to a week maximum before your VoA expires.

Single Entry Tourist Visa

If you’re planning to explore Bali for more than 60 days, a Single Entry Tourist Visa is a great option. It provides you with an initial 60-day stay permit, and extendable twice for another 60 days each for a total of 180 days period of stay or a whopping 6 months stay.

This visa is an excellent solution for those who want to stay beyond the 60-day limit offered by Visa on Arrival. You can explore Bali at a more relaxed pace, engage in long-term cultural experiences, or even pursue activities such as volunteering, learning traditional arts, or participating in extended yoga retreats.

To obtain one, you’re going to need to prepare more than the usual requirements. Apart from a valid passport (which has to be valid for a minimum of 12 months) and a return ticket, you also need:

• A proof of life expense of at least 2,000 USD,
• Two copies of coloured photographs, 4 cm x 6 cm in size,
• A guarantee letter from a Sponsor.

For the latter requirement, we can help you by becoming your sponsor. Check out our Single Entry Tourist Visa (B211A) for more information.

Single Entry Business Visa

As the name suggests, a Single Entry Business Visa is the best Bali visa for Australians who plan to do business activities in the country. Same as its counterpart, it is valid for 60 days and can be extended twice for an additional 60 days each.

Not to confuse business and working, with this visa, you are limited to:

• Conducting audits, production quality control, and inspections at a company’s branches in Indonesia,
• Emergency or urgent work – unplanned work that can’t be delegated to other people such as dealing with incidents caused by natural disasters, riots, protests, demonstrations, or other things that need to be handled immediately to avoid fatal losses.

The requirements are similar to a Single Entry Tourist Visa. One thing to keep in mind is that the visa is a single-entry visa – meaning that if you leave the country, it will expire and you’ll need to apply for a new one.

Working KITAS

Working KITAS allows you to work legally at a local company in Indonesia and it has a validity duration of up to 12 months and can be extended 4 times depending on the choice of the duration.

Like many other KITAS, Working KITAS requires a lot of documentation, both from you as an applicant and the sponsoring company, which you can see in detail on this page here.

But, as complicated as the application is, you can always count on a Bali visa agent like Kamala Visa Bali to ensure a smooth and stress-free application so you can relax and focus more on your travel preparation. Don’t hesitate to contact us for more information.

What not to do in Bali?

As we all know, Balinese in particular are friendly folk. You’ll get more genuine smiles and good vibes here than anywhere else. But, even the friendliest can lose their smile if you are not careful with what you do or what you bring to them. So here are some things you can avoid to keep that smile during your stay:

Disrespectful towards local cultures, traditions, and regulations

While the Balinese are welcoming towards tourists and visitors alike, they are still modest people who highly value their religion and traditions. You can respect that by avoiding some basic things such as:

• Disrupting ceremonies, 
• Drinking heavily, 
• Yelling and running around the streets like crazy,
• Stepping on offerings,
• Driving like cowboys, 
• Wearing revealing clothes when visiting sacred places and the list goes on.

Carrying forbidden items

The government is very strict in eradicating and blocking the entry of several dangerous “goods” into Indonesia, such as weapons, ammunition, narcotics, to pornographic items. Violating this could result in a harsh punishment, ranging from a long prison sentence to the death penalty. So please, do not accept any items entrusted to you by people you don’t know at the airport and always check your luggage when you’re about to leave the country.

Overstaying

Overstaying is something you definitely want to avoid if you want your name clean at the Immigration. It can be detrimental to your future trip, be it to Bali (Indonesia) or any other country, especially in Southeast Asia as the counties here share a data network of tourists coming in and out of the region.

If you overstay, immigration will fine you Rp.1.000.000 per day for up to 60 days. More than that is a crime according to Indonesian law and you’ll be detained, deported, or even blacklisted from coming back to the island for a period of time. So don’t try.